The present invention relates to an input device including a touch panel and an image processing apparatus equipped with the input device.
An image forming apparatus is equipped with an input device that accepts operation inputs such as image forming conditions including paper size, number of prints to be made and the like. Among such input devices is one that is equipped with hard keys and an operation panel. The hard keys are assigned to operation keys of a single function such as power supply ON/OFF key and the numeric keys. The operation panel is configured laying a touch panel on top of a display section such as LCD or EL.
As an example, the display section of the LCD is lit up by a backlight and, based on data to be displayed, displays icons that are assigned to various kinds of operation keys. The touch panel detects a push made to the display section and outputs an area that was pushed as a touched area. When the touched area is included within an area where an icon is displayed, the operation panel accepts the touch as an operation input made from an operation key to which the icon is assigned. By merely undergoing a change of the data to be displayed, the operation panel is capable of accepting an operation input as an input from any of the various kinds of operation keys.
In such an input device, when a failure occurs in the display section and/or the touch panel of the operation panel, there is no means for the operation input to be accepted.
Then, proposed in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 08-016296 bulletin was an input device in which operation inputs are accepted even when a failure occurred in the operation panel by using a substitute member such as the hard keys. In the input device, when a failure occurs in the touch panel of the operation panel, the various kinds of operation keys to which the operation panel is assigned are substituted by the hard keys, and then details of the substitution are displayed on the display section. The input device then accepts operation inputs by the push of the hard keys based on the details displayed on the display section.
In the input device, however, when a failure occurs in the display section of the operation panel, it is incapable of displaying the details of the substitution on the display section; and hence it is unable to accept an operation input. For example, when the intensity of the backlighting becomes low, it fails to cause a user to recognize the icons on the display section; and hence it is unable to accept a correct operation input.
Further, in recent years, the number of input devices that are not equipped with the hard keys but equipped with only an operation panel that is capable of easily assigning thereof to the various kinds of operation keys has increased. In such an input device that is equipped with only the operation panel, when a failure occurs, it is incapable of accepting an operation input in such a manner as described in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 08-016296 bulletin, because there is no substitute member.
The present invention is directed to providing an input device that is capable of exactly accepting the operation inputs without using a substitute member even when a failure occurs in the display section of the operation panel, and an image processing apparatus equipped with the input device.